Dean Smith revealed that he gave his Brentford squad a warning at half-time, despite a dominant first half in the 4-0 win over Derby.

The Bees were superb in the opening 45 minutes but only had a 1-0 lead after Lasse Vibe finished off a fine team move.

The Rams threw the kitchen sink at Brentford at the start of the second half but, once Jota made it 2-0, the Bees dominated the game with Vibe and the Spaniard finding the net again to complete the rout.

Smith said: “It’s a very Good Friday – a good performance and a good result, possibly one of the best I’ve had since I’ve been in charge because of the calibre of the opposition and the form they were in.

Lasse Vibe celebrates his second of the game (Image: Paul Burgman/Press-Photos.com)

“The first half was exceptional. I put them under a bit of pressure at half-time, which I don’t think the lads were expecting.

“I told them that if anyone under-performed, they’d get dragged straight away because we knew Derby would come at us.

“We coped with what they had. I was pleased when the second goal went in, I thought that was game over.”

Brentford showed their resilience during a second half where Derby came at them and Dan Bentley was relatively untroubled in the home goal.

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Smith added: “Defensively our structure was really good, they couldn’t play through us, so they had to go around us.

“Derby are a good team with good players and I reminded the players at half-time they’d had the one chance, we didn’t need them to have any more.”

During the first half of the season, Brentford were reliant on Scott Hogan to score goals but, since January, Vibe has scored 14, Jota has scored 10 with Sergi Canos, Tom Field, Harlee Dean and Maxime Colin all contributing at least two as well.

And Smith knows his side are capable of scoring from any position now.

Jota celebrates his goal (Image: Paul Burgman/Press-Photos.com)

He added: “With Jota and Lasse who are in really good form, we’re getting goals from everywhere.

“Scotty’s a top player, we know that – but we think Lasse is as well. He was unfortunate because Scotty was on fire in the first half of the year.

“Since the turn of the year he’s shown what a good finisher he is – and he’ll probably be annoyed he didn’t get a hat-trick with another one when Rico set him up.

“Jota coming off the right-hand side is always a threat against anyone. I felt he had a good chance in the first half that he should have scored.”